Left Behind
by Cyber Keiko
Summary: Someone was left behind...


1Hello everyone! This is a little piece (ahembunnyahem) that has been hopping around in my head for the past 3 weeks (no idea where it came from) and has decided to multiply to the point that it completely destroyed my 'procrastination in writing' setting in my brain. Which is a good thing in my book! Hope it happens with GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM! LoL. Anyways, I'll see where it goes; it'll depend on all of you. Please give me some FB!!! If you guys like then you shall receive! Anyways, enjoy and don't forget to grab a hanky! And I also recommend hearing the song while you read.

Title: Left Behind

Author: Cyber Keiko

Summary: Someone has been left behind.

Genre: Angst, people! Disclaimer! You've been warned!

Archive: Ask and you shall receive! 

Feedback: Pretty please! You know you want to!

Disclaimer: Labyrinth belongs to Jim Henson (God rest him), George Lucas and any other applicable person herein. Streets of Philadelphia sung by Bruce Springsteen.

And thanks to Sailor Twilight for the beta! Awesome roommate too! -

--

The world lay in ruins. The alien army had seen to that. No mortal was left in what was once such a prolific and advanced society. Not even the Fey were able to protect Earth from the oncoming Armageddon. Realizing their helplessness, and their own fault in the events forthcoming, they retreated permanently. And took all allies and kin left alive with them. So they thought.

A single figure walked the deserted streets of what was once the city of Philadelphia. Old crumbling walls stood in ruin, like headstones marking the resting place of a once great race. The streets echoed with empty sighs, mere shadows of sound compared to the orchestra of life that had echoed through the city so long ago. Death lingered, even if corpses no longer lined the roads staring sightlessly at the heavens. It remained in the bloodstains that refused to fade, even after so many years.

"I **_am_** Death." the whisper rasped with disuse, yet it echoed down the streets.

The Streets of Philadelphia...

The figure tilted its head, as if hearing strings of music long faded; yet not completely forgotten...

_**I was bruised and battered, I couldn't**_

_**tell what I felt. I was **_

_**unrecognizable to myself.**_

_**Saw my reflection in the window, and didn't**_

_**know my own face. So brother are**_

_**you gonna leave me wasting away**_

**_on the Streets of Philadelphia?_**

****

A dry cackle escaped the cracked lips of the cloaked one.

How appropriate.

To be left to waste away was the worst curse to be given. Especially when Death considered you an Immortal. There was nothing to look forward to. Except, maybe, forever.

Not long at all.

The figure stopped and regarded the reflection that stared back in the broken glass windowpane. A thin, wasted body looked back, a mere memory of what once was... Face darkened and unrecognizable. Distorted. Hair adorned with a shock of white, quite disheveled, eyes blank and empty...

Hope is the last thing to die, they say. Not always true…

In this case it had left an empty living shell, walking the boulevard of broken souls…

Turning sharply, the figure walked away, the glass shattering with a thought. There was nothing left to see. Nothing left... Heart and soul battered to disfigurement, literal thought the only thing left. Yet even that had begun to crumble, just like the Earth had… So many lives had been sacrificed...

And for nothing. It didn't matter in the end.

_**I walked the Avenue till my legs **_

_**felt like stone. I heard **_

_**the voices of friends vanished and gone**_

_**At night I hear the blood in my veins**_

_**just as black and whispery as the rain**_

**_on the Streets of Philadelphia._**

****

The figure kept walking, wandering, and the heavy package tied to its back grew weighted again. A strange feeling came over, and the cloaked one turned to face an eastbound street. Strange. Memory never failed since the end began, so this street must've been missed in the explorations. Starting to walk again, observing and retaining every single detail, something unusual was detected up ahead. Getting closer revealed a fallen human body lying in the gutter.

"I'm the grave keeper, lost one. I will help you to rest." A gesture was signed above the body.

"I do apologize for overlooking you. I have buried many a body. It seems there are places I might have yet to visit… Hopefully you are the last. But, do not worry, I have nothing but time. I will make sure to not leave anyone…behind."

The body was reverently lifted off the ground and taken to the Edén, a name given to the small garden in the center of the dead city, in an instant of inspiration. Taking out the shovel strapped to its own back, the grave digging began. It was a familiar ritual, done many times to count. All the bodies found while traveling had been buried. Like the first three...

flash>

Recently arrived from the successful mission of destroying the alien home world, spirits were still high. It was weird, though, that no one had been there for the welcoming home. Better to go home and find out what had happened… Then, Underground.

A colonial style home stood on the edge of a crater. Hope had been easy to harness back then...

Yet at the sight of the back, it began its slow death. Rounding the house, one noticed that the house core was destroyed. Debris littered the ground in all directions. Only the facade was left. Three figures could be seen on the ground. And her world crashed down.

Sissy! Beautiful blue eyes stared ahead, in a face covered with blood, soot and unruly golden hair. TOBY!

"N-O!" she dashed to his side and enveloped him in a hug. She rocked back and forth, as if she could force the soul back to the body it had abandoned. "NO! Nonononono. It's not FAIR!" she sobbed, tears streaming down her face, blinding her to the horrors that lied before her.

No. Oh my God, NO.

"JARETH!!!"

Silence.

"JARETH!!! Please!"

No answer.

Flashes of memories swept past her, leaving her gasping for air. She hugged Toby's body tightly as she remembered. Her parents and their smiles, their frowns, their heartbeats. Her little brother following her and reading with her in the park. All the friends in Xavier's School for the Gifted, all the adventures, her people, her husband, her beautiful baby boy...

"I wish the Goblin King would come to me! Right NOW!"

Nothing. And then she knew.

_**Ain't no angel gonna greet me.**_

_**It's just you and I my friend.**_

_**And my clothes don't fit me no more.**_

**_I walk a thousand miles just to slip this skin._**

****

Death refused to wrap her in its eternal embrace. No Angel had come, and neither had the Fey. In her wanderings, she had found many of the gateways to the Underground. They all had been sealed. She had walked around the world, flown when she could, and no gateway had opened at her touch. There was no way back home. No comfort from the ones she loved that still lived. And yet **she** lived. Alone.

She now stood over the freshly buried body. Her cloak, the only thing she had left of her husband, Jareth, fluttered in the freezing wind. Her clothes were threadbare, but she didn't care. As long as she had the cloak, nothing did. She turned and walked. She would walk the world until she could feel no more. Maybe then she could see them all again...

_**The night is falling I'm**_

_**flying away like I can**_

_**feel myself fading away**_

_**so receive me brother with your**_

_**faithless kiss. So will we **_

_**leave each other alone like this**_

_**On the Streets of Philadelphia?**_

****

She could feel her mind slipping into the night, daydreams flashing by while she walked. She knewthis would happen. Seventy-five years was a long time to live in a graveyard alone. She was surprised she had lasted this long. What little part of her still thought about such things, anyways. Insanity was the only path left, and it was welcome it if it she could speak to everyone again. She missed them so... Missed **HIM**…

"So will you leave me alone like this, on the Streets of Philadelphia?" she softly sang to the night.

To Jareth.

Jareth?

Laughter filled the night.

Sarah Williams, Queen of the Goblins, had been left behind…

And now she was lost.

A/N: Oh my gosh! What a monster! 2AM and work at 9AM… Hope you liked and please leave a review! Thanx!


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